I am depressed, and very lonely. I might even be so depressed simply because I am so damn lonely.

I'm married, but besides my husband I feel like I have no one I can talk to. I'd like to meet some new people (my age!) who live near by, but so far nothing I've tried has worked. I am 27, and do not have children.

My mother, who I used to talk to about everything and anything, died 2 years ago. I have no siblings, and I do not speak with her ex-husband (my wanna be father. He's a sociopath, and my life has been much better since I cut him out of it.)

I went to a free jewelry making class held at my local library. Everyone there was 60+, except for one girl who was there with her grandma. Grannie was very old, and the girl was maybe in 8th grade. So that didn't work.

I also struck out with a class at the local tech college. I figured it'd be a good way to learn something new and meet people who live in the area with similar interests. Unfortunately, everyone in the class was 50+. Except for one girl who was there with her mom, but she seemed to be a junior/senior in high school at the oldest. Too young for what I'm looking for.

My best friend lives in another state (4.5 hr drive away, so I get to see her maybe twice a year.) My other friends all live at least 1.5 hours away from where I am now. I did just get a new car, so at least I' not so transportation impaired anymore. But even so, no one is ever available to just hang out. Everyone is either: 1. Broke 2. Working all the time (and still broke) or 3. Having kids and always dealing with taking care of them (leaving no time to socialize.)

I am pretty much living paycheck to paycheck, even working full time. (I'm lucky to have a good job in this crappy economy.) I don't really have lots of time to volunteer anywhere, though I had considered this with the local animal shelter.

I'd love to participate in the local community theatre - but this hasn't worked out or me either. I tried out for a play, got cast in the choir, but they wouldn't give me a rehearsal schedule ahead of time. They were pretty much like, "come in for rehearsal on Monday, and we'll let you know the schedule for the rest of the week. It changes every week depending on what we have going on." Well F that - some of us work for a living and have to give 2 weeks notice about schedule or availability changes. So I had to drop out of the play.

I'm at my wits end. I want to be able to have friends I can talk to, people I can invite over to just hang out, play video games, go bowling, make cookies - whatever. I just miss interacting with other people! I had plenty of friends I got to talk to every day when I was in high school. Now that I'm not in school, I have no idea what to do anymore.

The less socializing I do, the less I feel like I'm able to converse normally when I actually am with people. I'm starting to develop anxiety issues about talking with people, even family, because I simply just don't do it often enough anymore. I'm always freaking out that I'll say something stupid, or make them think less of me, so I end up not saying much of anything.

How can I make some new friends? I want to meet people with whom I can carry on a conversation. (Read - not stupid or vapid people. There are way too many stupid people these days.) It'd be nice to meet other couples without kids, but that seems to be a non-existent thing. (Why is EVERYONE breeding?) I'd love a gal friend I could just hang out with. Why is this so hard to find?